Barry stood at the top of a hill that overlooked Hearthome City, fists planted on hips as he soaked in the sun. He had acquired something of a tan despite the cloudiness characteristic of the season. "Man, I am so glad we got to Hearthome City without any trouble! You always hear about muggings and stuff on Cycling Road. It's a good thing that absolutely nothing happened over the last few weeks!"

Dawn scoffed. Cheryl moved to cheer along with Barry but suddenly stopped herself, sending a concerned glance towards the boy who had just tipped over.

Lucas was on his hands and knees, his last change of clothes hanging on by scraps. At one point, he had just stopped wearing a shirt during training so it was mostly intact, but his jeans were irreparably shredded. It seemed that the exhaustion was catching up with him much like a car does soon-to-be roadkill.

The Riolu who had chosen to follow him, still wearing a bandage over one eye, kicked him and yipped.

"I hate you, Barry," Lucas said before groaning and forcing himself back to his feet. "I hate you so, so much."

The Lights in the Sky Are Thunderbolts - XXIX - I Miss You

Marley shut the door behind her as she reentered their hotel room. "I have returned," she said. The sun was still setting beyond the shuttered window, though darkness had already fallen at street level. Hilbert, sitting at the desk and running his hands over piles of glass, cast a long shadow that reached the tips of her shoes.

Hilbert looked up and seemed to flinch, trying to cover his work in progress on the desk.

Marley looked over at the hemispherical mass of stained glass which sat in front of him. Next to it was a smaller stone cup which held Sinistea and a thermometer.

Some time had passed since Hilbert's battle with Fantina. Marley had known he was doing something for his injured Ghost-type (as oxymoronic as that phrase was) but she hadn't seen him actively working.

She gave him a sly smile. "Playing the part of a father is nothing to be ashamed of."

Hilbert just stared at her for a moment before pulling his hands away, a slight blush on his face. "That's not what I'm doing."

"An older brother, then?" she suggested.

Hilbert sighed. "Don't mess with me." He picked up a glaringly-reflective shard and considered it, leaning back in the swivel chair. "It's my fault Sinistea got busted up so I gotta take responsibility."

"Admirable," she said, setting Shaymin's box down on her bed. "And the thermometer?"

Hilbert went a bit more red. "When I was a kid, I tried to pretend I wasn't sick when I was, and my mom would make me hold a thermometer in my mouth until I got the idea and went to bed. Alright? It made me get better faster."

Marley smirked as he rambled. "Cute."

Hilbert turned away and glared at nothing in particular. He would certainly deny that he was pouting. "Yeah, whatever. And no guy likes being called cute, by the way. We hate that. We can be cool and handsome and whatever, but not cute."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "If you say so." She glanced at the colorful pile of glass shards on the desk. "What exactly are you doing?"

"I got it from the church across town," Hilbert said, before shrugging. "Some kid smashed in a window and the priests were just going to throw the shards away, so I took it off their hands. The spiritual residue is positive, so Sinistea won't have a problem anchoring to it when I'm done."

"I wasn't aware that was possible."

"Eh… the church is the house of the Archean god, and Sinistea formed in my old house. There's enough of an overlap in those domains for Sinistea to latch onto it."

Marley raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you calling yourself a god?"

Hilbert blinked. "Huh? Oh. I didn't mean it like that." He scratched the back of his head. "I think it'll work even if I don't really have a reason to think so."

Marley hummed and began looking through the side pockets of Shaymin's basket. The embodiment of Gratitude let out a scent of wet cotton, helpfully reminding her that her query was. She pulled it out and said, "Here."

Hilbert stared at what she was holding, glanced up at her face and back."What…" Hilbert's mouth moved soundlessly for a second. "Sorry. What is that?"

Marley held in her hand a patch that was maybe a foot wide. The dye was spotty in some places, many threads had loosened since she'd bought it, and it was a few shades off, but what it depicted was easy enough to recognize. It was Golett's head, with jagged electric blue sunglasses like bolts of lightning covering their eyes and spikes sticking upwards like a crown, plastered on a basic white background.

"I thought that you might want to place it on your jacket," Marley said.

Hilbert stared for a few more seconds. "Uh. Thanks. How much do I-" His brow furrowed. "No, wait a minute. Where did you even get that?"

"The Amity Square flea market," she replied.

Hilbert blinked before ducking and cupped his mouth.

Marley was aware of the markets surrounding the gym circuit. It was common (enough to be profitable) for bootleg merchandise to be created based off of the more memorable battles broadcast on television. Amateur trainers lacked the kind of legal apparatus that professionals and League trainers did, so their Pokémon's likenesses were especially vulnerable. The phenomenon was usually a flash in the pan in the grand scheme of things. It was one of the inevitabilities of life, like celebrities putting their heads so far up their asses that they got stuck or politicians being found in decades-old photos of them having a little too much fun dressing like Jynx.

Though she wouldn't have put it in such terms aloud. She considered herself to be more dignified than that.

"Sure," he finally said. "Alright, thanks. How much do I owe you?"

She told him and he started getting the change together.

"There is also a, quote, "Fuego est number un!" bumper sticker, if you would like it," she added without inflection.

It seemed that Hilbert didn't know how to react for a few seconds. "I'm good," he finally said before putting his wallet away and trading the coins for the patch.

A few silent seconds passed as she rooted through her bag for her other purchases.

"That's not even proper Paldean," she heard him mutter.

It had been a few days since she told him about her past but there was still a lingering sense of discomfort- an awkward air created by resolving tension in a way that wasn't quite right. Too much done too quickly for it to have fully sunk in. She idly took to sewing up the holes in his jacket, and he either didn't notice or didn't bother to stop her. They didn't do much else as the afternoon faded into evening.

"A watched pot never boils," Marley reminded him.

"Don't nag me," Hilbert immediately replied. He sat hunched over the desk as the spirit swirled peacefully, their cup having grown back to half-full as they recovered. He had gotten up at least twenty nine times over the last few hours to look after the Pokémon. "It's about time for dinner, yeah?" he asked, still staring at the foamy swirl on Sinistea's surface. "Do you want takeout again?"

He could practically hear Marley raising her eyebrow from how her spirit fluctuated. "I have a hard time believing that eating nothing but pizza and fried rice is agreeable with your constitution."

"Well, believe it," Hilbert drawled. "And it's not just fried rice, it's got tons of proteins in it."

Hilbert was momentarily distracted by a tiny speck of magenta appearing in his vision. It was probably just someone releasing a Psychic-type, he figured, so he quickly put it out of his mind.

"If that's what helps you sleep at night," she said evenly.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure, whatever." Hilbert put his fist to his cheek and stared off into space.

"That is not proper grammar."

He couldn't help but smirk. "I'm not a proper kind of guy."

"That much is obvious."

"Then why point it ou-"

He stopped as he noticed the speck of magenta had grown to about the size of a quarter. Maybe they were walking closer by coincidence? The difference seemed very sudden to him.

Assuming the rest of his question, Marley said, "I suppose that as your companion for this current period, I have a responsibility to hold you to a higher standard. If you want people to trust you, they have to be able to respect you.

He made a difficult face, his lips wriggling with awkward tension. That was an actual reason, not just her trying to mess with him. "Ah… I guess that-"

A mass of Psychic TE particles appeared just outside their window.

Hilbert threw himself out of his chair to stand, raising his fists as a pink flash washed over their room.

"I'm Pokkén Rider PSI!" the figure exclaimed as the light faded. Hilbert's hearing fuzzed up for a moment. Had she just said the acronym in Galarian? The girl held a sideways peace sign in front of her mask's eye and struck a pose. "It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Hilbert blinked and lowered his hands. She couldn't have been taller than five feet, her hair ran down to her knees in twin ponytails of bright pink bound with orange bead-like bands, and she wore the sailor-like uniform of a student. Her entire body seemed to be wreathed in a pink glow.

"Marley," he began, "Why is there a preteen in our hotel room?"

"I'm fourteen!" the pink-haired girl interjected.

"I haven't a clue, truthfully," Marley said, "I thought that you might know."

"Why would I know something like that?"

"You have a habit. Why would I?"

Hilbert heavily preferred to not give her an easy win and so he changed the subject. "Okay, okay. What's the deal with the mask?"

"I'm a superhero, duh!" PSI said proudly. "Of course I need a mask."

Hilbert looked to Marley. "Is this some kind of cultural thing I'm not picking up on?"

"It's a kabuki mask." Still sitting on the edge of her bed, she peered closer with her fingers folded under her chin. "Though it looks more like an Abra than any mask I've ever seen."

"Ah," Hilbert said eloquently. "I knew that."

"Naturally," she replied before exaggeratedly leering at their unexpected guest. "Do you want some candy, little girl?"

"Alright, that's enough out of you," Hilbert said, before fully turning towards the Pokkén Rider. With the way her arms were crossed, they were probably only a few lines away from her beginning to impatiently tap her foot.

Wait, lines? Huh? What?

Anyway, Hilbert asked, "So, why are you here?"

"I watched your challenge against Fantina and you looked strong."

Hilbert raised an eyebrow. It had been odd getting called out and congratulated in the street but it wasn't surprising that people recognized him. "Then why did you come to us instead of her?"

"I thought that Fantina might be too busy," she said simply.

Hilbert's eyebrow twitched. "Ahuh."

The overhead light flickered and dimmed for a moment.

Hilbert scowled. "I mean, that's fine. If you need help, things are going bump in the night, whatever, then I'm your guy. What's the situation?"

"I made a post on the GTS about it, but basically-"

The cosplayer launched into an explanation that involved many exclamation points, points where arms were shaken around dramatically, and poor impressions were made to demonstrate that there were some bad people doing some bad stuff in and around town, and that she wanted help to stop it.

"I see," Hilbert said as the girl winded down.

"So, you're going to help?"

Hilbert sighed. "Yeah, I guess."

"Hm. You're a real cranky guy, you know that? Were you born that way or did someone stick a Sudowoodo up your butt?"

"We're adopting her," Marley interjected.

"No," Hilbert bit back a swear in consideration of the company, "We are not. And you usually need to be married to adopt."

"I'll file the license applications," Marley added.

Hilbert scoffed.

"You two aren't exactly normal, are you?" PSI asked after the moment passed. "You're talking about total nonsense. Can't you stay on topic?"

"It's a coping mechanism," Marley explained.

"It's a coping-" Hilbert jerked his head towards Marley, "Yeah, that."

"Shouldn't you take things more seriously? If someone gets hurt because you were joking around, what…" she trailed off as Hilbert's face went blank.

"Point the way," he said before he started for the door.

"Uh…" she recovered from the sudden shift in attitude, "I'm coming with you!" she insisted.

"Whatever." Hilbert stuck his hands in his pockets and glanced over his shoulder. "Marley, can you watch Sinistea while I'm out?"

She nodded. "As long as you come back for them."

Hilbert waved vaguely as he pulled open the door. "Yeah, yeah, I will."

PSI seemed to be staring at him as they went on their way.

"When things are serious, then we'll get serious," he said suddenly. "Don't talk to me about taking things seriously, ya twerp."

"You're old," she shot back. " Only old people call kids twerp. And bad guys. You're not a bad guy, are you?"

"Allegedly." Hilbert shrugged.

The detailing on her mask seemed to scrunch up. "That really doesn't make me feel any better…"

The two of them walked down a wide alley with only streetlamps and dim starlight to show the way. The sun having long since set and all but the shadows having gone home for the night, there was no one to look at the pair oddly as they proceeded through the industrial outskirts of Hearthome.

It was a city built for families but that didn't mean there wasn't any work to be done. Most residents either worked in shipping and logistics, did steady textile work, or were ecologists monitoring Mount Coronet.

She handed him a rough cloth mask that pushed his hair back as he slid it on. With his jacket back at the hotel (it was rather humid that day) as well as Yuki (who had gotten her fill of fighting, thank you very much), he may have looked entirely unrecognizable. He would have to buy new clothes soon anyway.

Not satisfied, he ducked low and pulled darker bits of earth out of the ground. After sweeping a chunk of flint and asphalt into his fingertips, he ran his hands through his hair and darkened it to glossy black. His heart pounded against his ribcage but unless he really pushed himself, he could trust Golett to keep it under control.

"Neat trick," PSI said, "Is that your partner helping you out?"

Hilbert briefly wondered if he ought to give her the full summary of how his powers worked but decided against it. He couldn't fully trust someone who couldn't fully trust him. He shrugged noncommittally.

PSI held up a hand seemingly at random. "We're getting close. They have goons watching the outside. Cameras, too."

Hilbert raised an eyebrow, though the gesture was hidden. "Right. Do you know where the nearest electrical box is?"

She led him through a side street to a corner near one of the city's monorails. A heavy green block sat on a platform of concrete, marked with yellow warning signs and other markings that he couldn't read but could still get the gist from.

Hilbert placed his hand to the panel and felt Golett twist the lock open with an invisible key. It popped open without any issue, revealing an organized interior of panels and wires. "Trust me. I'm not an electrician but I play one on TV."

"What?"

Hilbert shoved his hand into the nearest clump of exposed circuits. He clenched his jaw as the electricity ran through him and allowed it into his spirit, in turn allowing Zekrom's lightning to escape him and begin flowing into the power grid. A vague awareness of the circuit's layouts appeared in his mind, the earth turning transparent like a three-dimensional blueprint. He saw the power lines carve through the air and wrap around the blocks, the third rail of the nearest train line, and the rare few underground circuits, but nothing leading into the building's perimeter

"It's on its own power grid," Hilbert said as the flow continued circulating without expanding towards the gap. "No connection."

"That's kind of suspicious, isn't it? It's illegal to stay off the main power lines in the city," she said.

"Yeah," Hilbert agreed as he cut off the connection and withdrew his hand, shaking off a few sparks. "I don't think the libertarians have a massive support base out here, so that's odd no matter what."

She looked at him oddly. "What do libraries have to do with it?"

"Anyway, you're right that it's strange," Hilbert said, moving on entirely. "They'd need their own power system. I'll see what I can do." He started walking in the warehouse's general direction.

"Wait a minute. How did you even do that? Was that your partner too?"

"Sure, let's go with that," Hilbert said.

Without even looking he could tell that the Pokkén Rider was pouting. "I hope your girlfriend dumps you."

He snorted. "Marley? She's not my girlfriend."

She sighed with the air of someone who knew that no matter how hard they tried, some people just didn't want to see that two plus two equaled four. Or five.

In this case it was certainly five, Hilbert thought. He was being entirely reasonable and was, of course, very self-aware.

Hilbert gestured to a steel ladder that could get them onto the flat rooftops of the industrial district. They were still a few hundred feet away from their destination, but the alleys were small enough that they might be able to jump. The ladder was locked partway up the building. "Do you want me to get that?"

PSI didn't answer, instead staring intently at the lock. The wind seemed to rattle it slightly, but nothing else. She looked down sheepishly.

"What was that?" Hilbert asked.

It took her a few seconds to answer. "Do you ever have dreams?" she asked him, still staring at the ground. "Like, you see things that are so terrible you can't imagine they're real?"

Hilbert's face tightened. "Do you have dreams like that?"

"I have a friend who does. He tells me that he's been training me to help stop what he's seen. My dreams are a little different. I've heard these people and Pokémon calling out to me, begging for someone, anyone to save them. I hear prayers and I feel bad for not being a god."

Man, Hilbert thought, what is it with today and delusions of grandeur?

"Kazza says that those kinds of dreams are normal for inexperienced psychics," she added before blinking. "I didn't say that."

Hilbert felt a pressure on the edge of his mind. Golett shoved it off easily enough before he glared at the girl. "Did you just try to use telepathy on me?" Wait a minute. "Did you just use telepathy?" he asked.

Golett reminded him that there were, in fact, things he did not know. Hilbert reminded them not to be such a smartass. Still, humans with psychic powers… How about that? He had figured before that she had a partner Pokémon who was doing everything for her.

Hilbert very quickly came to the realization that he was thinking like a hypocrite and shut down that train of thought.

"Ah… darn." PSI wiped her mask as the cartoonishly slanted eyes pulsed pink. "Kazza's gonna yell at me later now. Thanks for that, jerk."

"You're a psychic," Hilbert said.

"Duh. Come on, what kind of Pokkén Rider doesn't have superpowers?"

He paused. "Is a Pokkén Rider like an Ultra Guardian?"

She made a disgusted noise. "Do you live under a rock or something? Ultra Guardians is a crappy localization, you poser. Pokkén Rider is the original show."

Hilbert felt the tide of regionalism well up within him. "Nuh uh."

"The heck do you mean, nuh uh?"

"There's no rule saying a copy can't be better than the original."

"Whatever!" she whispered, though she still sounded plenty offended. "Can we get going?"

Hilbert nodded. A hand pressed against the wall and a short prayer later, the lock clicked and the panel blocking the ladder swung open. He began climbing without another word and heard PSI following behind him seconds later.

They quickly came up on a gap between roofs. The difference in elevation was only a foot or so, but the horizontal distance seemed to stretch out before him. "Huh," he said. "I wasn't sure why I thought there would be bridges, but-"

PSI shoved him.

His heart pulsed. His leg jolted at the last second and threw him across the gap.

As the Pokkén Rider landed above him surrounded by a pink glow, Hilbert glared at her and rolled to his feet. He mentally thanked Golett for smoothing out the gravel and concrete covering the roof and said, "That wasn't necessary."

She shrugged. "You're alive, ain'tcha? And we're sorta on a schedule."

He couldn't fault her for that logic. "Where did you get your information?"

She tapped at where her mask covered her temple. "Telepathy. Duh. Most of these guys have memory blocks but it's just on stuff like names, addresses, stuff like that. I got the gist of their plans and I've been scouting out their base in this city ever since."

"How'd you know to look in the first place?"

She jumped over another gap. "I have dreams of people's thoughts because I pick up their psychic energy. Kazza tells me the important parts since I'm not super experienced yet."

"Kazza's a Pokémon?" he guessed before following her.

"Mhm." She pointed ahead to a warehouse that stood slightly taller than the rest. Even at a distance, he could see a small amount of light shining through the building's vents. "This is it coming up."

They jumped down a half wall and crossed to the next gap. A ventilation slat was suspended over a rack of scaffolding which was in a bad state of disrepair.

Luckily, Hilbert saw, one of the metal pipes holding it up was touching the ground. He put a hand on the ledge and pushed his spirit through the wall and towards the ground, then across the alley, and then ran it through the metal supports. It firmed up where his spirit flowed, becoming straight where it was bent and breathing a sigh of relief where it was rusted. The metal-grate of a platform took some creativity to patch up, but by the end of the process he had made it thick enough that he was confident it would support their weight.

He bowed to PSI. "After you."

She gave him a look that was probably dubious but was obscured by the plasticky mask covering her face. She still jumped though, and after a tense moment of rattling, the scaffolding settled.

He followed after her and instead of aiming for the scaffolding, he aimed for the wall it was leaned up against. The concrete cushioned his body as he slammed into it and bounced back onto the scaffolding. The metal creaked but didn't swing any more than it had when PSI landed.

They crouched next to a ventilation panel. Slats were cut into it, large enough for them to see through up close but small enough that no one inside would be able to see back.

Men and women stood around the warehouse, though through the darkness and with the aprons and pseudo-hazmat suits they wore he could only guess at their genders by looking at their spirits. A large machine was surrounded by crates, batteries, and stains on the ground that were an uncomfortably dark shade of red.

A Pokéball was activated by one of the grunts. A blob of silk appeared in the open chamber and looked around confusedly. One of the hazmat suits fumbled around on the edge of the chamber and found a plastic tube, running it into where he guessed was the Pokémon's mouth. Both of them left the Pokémon alone in the chamber before sealing it shut.

The Silcoon's natural instincts seemed to kick in and it shot streams of silk at the walls of the chamber, slowly pulling itself into the air and creating a sort of web.

One of the scientists gave a nod to another who then flipped a switch.

A crystalline blue liquid flooded into the tube, looking like a liquified stream of Rare Candies. The flow ran into the Silcoon's mouth and the Pokémon began glowing with the light of evolution.

The sound of a generator kicking up roared. Fans inside the machine began turning and an intense whirlwind swirled around the Pokémon, whipping around loose thread of silk.

The light surrounding Silcoon began breaking down and being vacuumed into the top of the chamber. Where its antennae were growing there was empty space, where it attempted to sprout legs there were mismatched stubs, where it attempted to spread wings were weak, shallow sheets of chitin.

The light dimmed. The tubes running between the chamber and the batteries thrummed with an excess of power.
A heap of flesh, chitin and silk dropped to the floor of the chamber with a splat he only heard seconds later. The Silcoon's innards spilled out as it cracked like an eggshell.

As the chamber's door clicked open and the grunts began cleaning it out, he turned to the side. No, he realized, the sound of the impact hadn't carried so well- PSI had just slid their mask up and begun throwing up.

Intellectually, he knew that what was happening in that building wasn't much different than what happened in slaughterhouses and processing plants. There were disgusting things necessary for a modern society to exist, but even the most heartless person could agree that the harm ought to be minimized.

He still didn't like it. The Silcoon's spirit had been taken, violated, defiled. Its natural desire to grow was manipulated and that growth was forced upon it too soon. Its soul had been ripped out of its body. There was nothing it could do and there wasn't a choice. It would not see any kind of afterlife when it had been absorbed in such a manner. There was no humanity in that action despite the dozen or so people operating the machine. And for what purpose?

If it was for a reason that required so much secrecy then he thought that it could be nothing good.

Spirits popped up on the edge of his vision near the back of the warehouse. There was a faint flow of Psychic TE bubbling around the area, but he couldn't make much of it as he tried to regain his concentration.

PSI coughed and wiped her mouth before sliding the mask back down. He hadn't seen any more than the lower half of her face. "Ugh. Some people just teleported in with cargo. I see maybe four Psychic-types on the outside, not very strong ones. Teleport is probably their only move."

"Can they see us?" Hilbert asked.

"There's enough residue in this area that if I dial it back, they won't catch on. You don't have much psychic energy anyway." She paused. Her voice cracked despite her best effort as she said, "That poor Pokémon…"

He managed to delay his own sense of disgust and despair in time for his blood to run cold. Men dressed in solid gray jumpsuits with face masks and blue dyed hair walked into the main atrium of the warehouse. A sound like thunder roared past his ears. Whether it was his blood or something else, he couldn't tell.

"Thanks for bringing me here," Hilbert said. "Now go home."

"What? You can't-"

"Shut up," he said, cutting across her. "If you don't leave now, there is a bigger than zero chance that you're gonna die. And a bigger chance than that chance that you are gonna get hurt. I've run into these people before. They don't play games." He paused and dropped his voice. "They killed a girl younger than you right in front of me."

That gave her pause.

"Before, this could have been anything. Now…" Hilbert looked back at the people in suits and the muck pasted across the warehouse floor. He closed his eyes for a moment. "I can't say that it's evil. But it's not right. I'm going to keep watch, but if something goes wrong, you need to leave."

Hilbert focused his spirit. Since Golett's translation was based on intent rather than volume, he ought to be able to make out the conversation even at a whisper.

"This is the last of it?" a man in slacks with bat-like dark blue hair asked. From how his jumpsuit was different from those of the grunts swarming around him, Hilbert guessed he was some kind of leader.

One of the people in hazmat suits stepped up and responded. "Everything we salvaged from Eterna, Commander Saturn."

"Good. The world thanks you. We'll soon be back on schedule to begin testing before midsummer."

The grunt jerkily bowed with his entire torso. "Thank you, sir!"

Saturn nodded and turned in their general direction to speak to someone working a switchboard.

"I would like your report on recent power generation. As the time draws near for-"

Saturn's spirit spiked towards them. It grew more concentrated between him and them.

"...If you'll excuse me for a moment," Saturn said to the operator, glancing again at the ventilation slat before reaching for a Pokéball.

"They know we're here. Shit," Hilbert spat. Was it just luck, or had they been too obvious?

A metallic blue bell-like Pokémon appeared in a blast of light. Hilbert couldn't help but think of it as a tee shirt even as it began glowing pink and disappeared, taking Saturn along with it.

"We need a distraction," Hilbert said, focusing on the spirits surrounding him. "You're up."

The wind whistled as Machamp spread their spirit across the entire building. They grabbed the overhanging edges of the roof with four fists. The temperature suddenly rose twenty nine degrees.

Saturn reappeared on the roof behind them, accompanied by grunts and a horde of Psychic-types.

"You have ten seconds before I have you executed," Saturn said, standing above them on a ventilation box. "Who sent you?"

The floating group of Bronzor began charging attacks and the grunts with them deployed batons. A pulse of Psychic TE went up in the air, expanding a hundred feet all around and filling the air with a pink glow.

"A psychic barrier," PSI whispered. From a glance, Hilbert could see that she was shaking. "I can't focus, I can't get away…"

Hilbert breathed and glared at their commander. "Have you ever killed someone before?" he asked.

Saturn shrugged. "I don't see a reason that I shouldn't start now. Your ten seconds are up."

Hilbert scowled before he grabbed the Pokkén Rider and threw her over his shoulder. He couldn't hear her confused protests and continued running as a wave of Confusion tore into the wall with a terrible screech. He ducked just before a Psybeam silently roared past and cut a clean hole through the concrete wall and the next three walls after it.

"Stop them!" Saturn yelled behind him. "We can't afford any more setbacks!"

A cold part of him in the back of his mind began to think.

Setbacks. Is that what you call this? What you did to that Pokémon, undoubtedly did to many Pokémon before, was that just a business decision?

A guttural growl in Hilbert's throat grew into an unintelligible shout before he leapt to the next rooftop.

His heart pulsed.

The concrete and steel holding up the warehouse roof behind him collapsed in on itself like a soda can underfoot. Grunts shouted as they fell and stumbled, though the floating Psychic-types continued to levitate. The lights flickered as wires were cut and rebar sheared through the electronics.

He distantly heard Machamp rip the roof off of the warehouse before it crashed somewhere behind him. Sparks flew where his feet made contact.

Hilbert landed and continued running, the Psybeams he couldn't dodge nicking him and searing his flesh with a cold heat. Rooftop to rooftop, he ran as fast as he could, hoping that if he crossed the edge of the barrier, he could-

He felt his nose cave inwards as he ran into a solid wall of air. Blood immediately began pouring out over his lip and washed over his tongue with a metallic bitterness. He spat a curse out along with a wad of blood and mucus as he turned around. PSI seemed to have gone unconscious, telling from the limpness of her limbs and the lack of concentration in her spirit. Had there been too much psychic strain?

The grunts began to catch up to him, the Bronzor beginning to surround him and ignoring the wall of Psychic energy they had created.

Saturn stood at the lip of the building above him.

"Hm. You possess multiple powerful Pokémon, don't you?" Saturn said disdainfully. "But you're still human. You don't have the fortitude to survive our glorious recreation. I'm surprised you're still standing after that sudden stop."

Hilbert sent a prayer through the concrete beneath his feet, through the foundation beneath the building, and through the being which Sinnoh was built on. Information began pouring into his spirit as one of the grunts spoke up.

"Sir, I think that's a kid on his shoulder…"

"So?" Saturn asked. "They're human too. Equally valueless, even less valuable than those who are merely ignorant of our purpose." Saturn turned back to him. "You would oppose those who will create a perfect world. You are what we call evil. There's no place for animals like you in our world."

"I want nothing to do with your world," Hilbert said, though his tongue was heavy and his breathing hard. Blood soaked into the collar and front of his shirt.

"We are the only true beings in this world," Saturn said with an appalling certainty. "Only we can see what lies beneath this false reality created by monsters. If only you had a spirit like ours, then you might see the perfect world that is beyond this one."

Hilbert saw red.

The metal in everything around him became clear. He was the iron in his own blood, the gravel lining the roof, and the wires that ran through tubing right beneath his feet.

Hilbert looked up. "Fine," he said, the flow of his words broken more than his nose. "Yeah, the world isn't perfect. People die, kill each other, hurt each other, hate each other. But you know what? If it means people don't have to be afraid of people like you, then I'll take any world over whatever the hell you're talking about."

Hilbert plunged his fist into the roof. Concrete parted like sand and metal like water around his wrist as he took hold of the wires within. "This isn't the kind of world I've been fighting for!"

Electricity stabbed upwards out of the roof, lancing between the floating Bronzor and stunning them. A dull thrum of pain emanated from each like the ringing of a gong. It jumped between the grunts, sending shocks up and down their bodies. Saturn fell to his knees, his arms spasming as he glared at Hilbert. "You-"

Fire roared into the sky above where they had begun fighting. Alarms started blaring.

Hilbert forced a grin. He mentally thanked Fuego, though the spirit hadn't formed fully enough to hear it. "You bastards will live. But you're marked men. When you look up in the sky and see the New Moon, know that I will never let people like you sleep. I haven't been human for a long time- and I won't quit, not even in death. When you see the darkness hiding in your crawlspace, when the lights flicker and you're all alone, when the things that go bump in the night knock on your door, know who that is. Let me show you what real Nightmares are made of."

A spirit reached out for the edge of Hilbert's soul. A trail of blood so red that it was no doubt taken from the still-living. An eye bluer than the brightness of a dying star. A cackling madness that could be wrought on anyone at any time.

The New Moon offered him a taste of its power and Hilbert brought that sickening darkness into his soul.

He declared, with darkness spilling from his lips and dripping slowly through the air, "That's the kind of monster I am." Shadows covered the distance between him and them, locking them in place even as the lightning flickered out.

Hilbert's eyes flashed blue. Not with the lightning of Ideals, but with the stars of an endless night, an unending Nightmare. Smoke rose from the drops of his blood and choked the air.

With the rooftops immersed in rolling seas of shadows, he turned on his heel and continued to run. The psychic barrier had quickly lost its denseness after his counterattack, leaving the burning warehouse and the ailing grunts behind.

He felt Machamp and Fuego latch onto his spirit as he cleared another gap between rooftops.

His heart pulsed with concern.

Golett.

Another pulse.

I don't think I liked that very much.

He felt the spirit's acknowledgement.

You won't let me become like that for real, will you? You'll stop me if I go too far, right?

The air poured through his hair as he ran. Other than that, the scraping of his shoes pounding against the roof, and the sound of sirens growing louder in the distance, there was silence.

AN:

Back into the swing of things, though I'm going to take more time to work on original projects. I need to graduate with something notable to my name other than a passing grade, but I also want to finish this story. I don't like going back on commitments, if that makes sense.

I promise that Pokkén Rider PSI is not an OC. Answers will come next chapter, don't dog on me about it. Hearthome is almost done. Thanks for reading!